Is there really anything wrong with Silver?

There’s nothing like that Olympic spirit – a time where we come to the office wearing shades of gold and green, we know the names of sports we never knew before, and we cry as someone lands the perfect double backflip. Even those Stormers without a sporty bone in their body can’t help but get excited every four years, and the London Olympics have been no exception.

The mood is somewhat dampened, however, when we start to chastise our country’s greatest athletes for only getting silver, when we expect them to get gold.

Yes, they’re great sportspeople, but a silver result is still a pretty great result considering Australia is up against 203 other countries at the games. That’s a lot of competition!

It’s sad that Aussie Olympians feel their silver isn’t worth enough. Emily Seebohm broke down in tears when she came second in her swimming race, saying she was disappointed to let down her family and coach. The feeling she should have had when she touched the wall was elation, not disappointment – she won a silver medal at the Olympics!

It’s time we stop covering the negative side of the Olympics and this horrible Australian stigma attached to a silver medal, and instead praise them for representing our country and getting a spot on the podium.